Luxembourg Highlights Agriculture Support Measures at EU Council Meeting

On Tuesday 24 May 2022, Luxembourg's Minister of Agriculture, Viticulture and Rural Development, Claude Haagen, took part in the “Agriculture and Fisheries” Council in Brussels, Belgium.

The invasion of Ukraine by Russia and the repercussions on the agricultural markets was one of the main points on the agenda of the ministers, knowing that the inflationary trends both in agricultural products and agricultural inputs, and in foodstuffs continue to raise concerns.

In this context, Minister Haagen specified that in certain sectors, the prices paid to producers were only partially able to compensate for these very high cost increases. “For this reason we continue to encourage short circuits and other initiatives that aim to bring consumers closer to producers and vice versa”.

Minister Haagen also stressed that it was just as important to guarantee the fluidity of trade at international level, in order to be able to deal with potential and real threats to food security, and welcomed the joint declaration concerning "open and predictable trade in agricultural and food products", presented at the meeting of the General Council of the WTO, held on 9 and 10 May, co-sponsored in particular by the European Union (EU).

Minister Haagen also informed his counterparts that in Luxembourg a package of measures was made available to preserve the economic and social resilience of national agricultural sectors.

Another dominant topic at the Agriculture and Fisheries Council was the development of a vaccination against highly pathogenic avian influenza.

Minister Haagen supports the French Presidency in its efforts to examine additional tools for preventing and combating avian flu such as vaccination, knowing that avian flu represents a potential risk for public health and has serious economic consequences for poultry sectors affected.

However, Luxembourg is currently free of avian flu and that the preventive quarantine measures have been lifted since 1 April 2022.

Minister Haagen also welcomeed the Cypriot initiative concerning the establishment of a new EU legislative framework for an EU positive list relating to the keeping of pets by specifying that Luxembourg, in within the framework of its law on the protection of animals, already has a positive and restrictive list of animal species, the keeping of which is authorised as a domestic animal. “The positive list method is a sensible solution, in terms of clarity, simplicity and efficiency. Indeed, a negative list must continuously adapt to changes in the international trade in pets, which is difficult to implement, and to understand by animal owners” added Minister Haagen.

Minister Haagen also welcomed Marc Fesneau, the new French Minister for Agriculture and Food Sovereignty, who chaired the Council of Ministers.